Aluminum conductor having good creep resistance properties is conventionally produced from continuous cast aluminum produced in the Properzi process, as illustrated by Properzi U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,346. A process for producing such conductor is described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,512,221 which comprises hot rolling the ingot immediately after casting to break up FeAl.sub.3 particles precipitated during casting. The FeAl.sub.3 particles are dispersed throughout the ingot by the hot rolling to inhibit large cell formation.
While aluminum conductor produced from Properzi-type ingot performs satisfactorily, it would be desirable to produce aluminum conductor from other processes such as the direct chill casting (DC) process due to the additional production costs involved in practicing the Properzi process. In practice, however, it has not been possible, heretofore, to produce an aluminum conductor from DC ingot having creep resistant properties comparable to aluminum conductor produced from continuous cast (Properzi) ingot.
Quite surprisingly, it has now been discovered that aluminum conductor having good creep resistance and excellent conductivity can be produced from direct chill cast (DC) ingot by careful control of the iron content and temperature conditions during working.